Seven consumers filed a proposed class-action lawsuit on Tuesday in federal court in Washington state, accusing Costco Wholesale Corporation of selling Orgain Organic Protein Powder without warning buyers about alleged heavy metals. The complaint says the powder was marketed as high quality, clean and nutritious, but that the company did not disclose the presence or risk of lead, cadmium and arsenic.
The filing puts Orgain Protein Powder at the center of a new consumer-safety fight for Costco, a retailer that moves large volumes of household goods and food products. The plaintiffs say the company violated consumer protection and false advertising laws by selling the product as safe while keeping quiet about what they describe as contamination risk. They also say Costco knew or should have known about the issue.
Why shoppers are searching now is simple: the lawsuit landed on Tuesday, turning a long-running concern about heavy metals in protein supplements into a fresh legal challenge. The complaint leans in part on testing and reporting by the Clean Label Project and Consumer Reports, including a Consumer Reports test of Orgain Organic Plant-Based Protein Powder Vanilla Bean that it said exceeded its level of concern for lead. In another report last year, Consumer Reports said it tested 23 protein powders and ready-to-drink shakes from popular brands and found that more than two-thirds contained more lead in a single serving than its food safety experts say is safe to have in a day.
That finding matters because it gives the lawsuit a benchmark: if a single serving can exceed what the group’s experts consider safe for a day, then the alleged omission is not just about trace contamination, but about a product category that can carry measurable exposure in routine use. The complaint says Costco failed to perform or require heavy metal testing and failed to disclose the presence of heavy metals before continuing to sell the product without warning.
Orgain is pushing back. An Orgain spokesperson told the Seattle Times that trace amounts of substances that occur in the environment can be present in plant-based ingredients, but said the products comply with applicable food safety standards and guidance. The spokesperson also said, “We stand behind the safety and quality of our products.”
The unanswered question is how the court will treat the gap between those two positions: a retailer accused of selling a protein powder with undisclosed toxic metals, and a brand insisting its products meet safety standards. The complaint says Costco violated consumer laws, but the filing does not spell out the specific remedies the seven consumers are seeking, leaving that fight to the court.
Costco Orgain Protein Powder lawsuit lands on Law360’s docket
